We get what we deserve

Letters from readers

Correction

Regarding the article in the movie section, “Cemetery of Kings.” The article mentions the filmmaker as being Taiwanese when, in fact, he is Thai — from Thailand.

Name withheld

via voicemail

May Seem Trivial

Just got done reading Scott Marks’ review of the movie Cemetery of Splendour. He states that Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Taiwanese filmmaker. If you are from Thailand you are Thai, if you are from Taiwan you are Taiwanese. I find it hard to believe that a knowledgeable movie reviewer that heaped so much praise on the filmmaker could make such a mistake.

In another sentence he talks about “earth-grinding steam shovels.” I don’t even have to see the movie to know that there are not any steam shovels in it. These are machines of a bygone era, with very few still around in operating condition. I am sure what he saw in the movie were modern excavators. If he can prove me wrong on that I would like to see the proof.

These may seem like trivial matters to most people, but if you are going to make a living as a movie reviewer, these kind of mistakes make me question the validity of anything Mr. Marks writes.

Paul Guilliams

San Marcos

The callers are correct. I am ethnically challenged. Hey, I spelled the director’s name right, didn’t I? — Scott Marks

Shut Up

What is this jackass going on about? The police didn’t respond in force because somebody stole a bag of Cheetos. The police responded because this guy assaulted the store clerk. Doesn’t matter if no injuries were sustained. Would this thief have taken a swing at an older lady or weaker clerk?

This guy needs to shut up and get a clue before he starts spouting off about nonsense. I think the Trayvon Martin case was bullshit too. This isn’t about race; shouldn’t be about race. This is about the law protecting citizens from being assaulted at work and on the streets.

This guy would be better suited going out and feeding the homeless instead of protecting criminals. Just because you might see someone everyday where you work doesn’t mean you know who they are. This guy needs to shut up before he gets a bunch of other ignorant jackasses riled up and rioting over the police doing their jobs.

Name withheld

via voicemail

Doesn’t Make Sense

Billionaires set up an organization to make hundreds of millions of dollars every year, with their workers making millions. We, the public, spent many billions across America to help build their places of business, and gave them many millions worth of prime public land free of charge.

The public does this because the billionaires spent the highest amount of political advertising ever in local elections to convince them that they do not live in a real city without their product, and they make huge false claims that it makes good economic sense for public funding when numerous economic studies show it doesn’t make sense, usually by a wide margin, because there are just ten football events per year with low-paying jobs and other events used to possibly help justify it can be done at other places already built.

Then we also spent hundreds of millions of additional public funds (taxes) to maintain and upgrade their places of business, provide the necessary surrounding infrastructure, train their workers at public expense in our colleges and high schools, provide extra police protection, and give them a very large amount of free advertising on our public airways from our news organizations.

Because their business is very dangerous, many of their workers suffer severe body and brain injuries, ruining many lives, and increasing heath care costs also paid by the public. All this so these billionaires get to keep most of the hundreds of millions of annual profit, and have their net worth increased by billions.

Wow! Americans would never go for this huge very expensive corporate giveaway that provides them so few economic benefits. Well, they have already convinced probably about 100 million Americans (many just getting by) to do so. They named it the National Football League – NFL for short.

Wayne Dunlap

Downtown

What We Deserve

Well, as long as everybody’s cell phone keeps working and they can text and drive, and they’ve got cheap alcohol and illicit drugs, I think we’re going to keep voting for retarded politicians as our leaders. We get what we deserve.

Comments

I'll take the heat for the Taiwanese/Thailand gaffe. I screwed up. I'm sorry. But this steam shovel nitpicking needs to be nipped. Attached is a screencap from the film. Never heard the term modern excavator, Paul. Sorry if I don't spend the day pleasuring myself to a Caterpillar catalog. Steam shovel seemed as colorful and fitting a description as any. There's Bobcat, but I didn't want people to think it was a Disney Nature release.
While I have your attention, fruitcake, did you even bother seeing a film that I awarded 5 stars or did you allow a minor technicality to act as excuse for you to stay home and watch TV? From now on, you are forbidden from reading my reviews.

Don't worry, your inability to describe what you see onscreen, would not influence me to not see the film.

I do not have a Caterpillar catalog at home or a tv for that matter, and I spend my days being gainfully employed. What I do have is a wide base of knowledge and the ability to research things that I do not know about.

You call me a fruitcake for pointing out your errors. I will call you a hack, that seems to be as colorful and fitting of a description as any.

As far as forbidding me to read your reviews, you cant take your ball and go home. You want to publish reviews in a public paper, then man up and deal with it when you get called out on your errors or lack of knowledge.